‘Taylor made’: City, developer break ground on mixed-use downtown project

City leaders and developers have broken ground on a project estimated to have an economic impact of more than $50 million over its first five years.

The city of Columbus and Flaherty & Collins held an official ceremony for the beginning of the multifamily urban grocer development — now known as The Taylor — on Thursday. Developers expect to open the first units to residents in the summer of 2023 and reach full completion that fall. The project site is located at Second Street and Lafayette Avenue.

The Taylor will include space for a grocery store and 200 apartments with a number of amenities for residents. These include a community lounge and kitchen, a tech lounge, a fitness center with on demand classes, a bike fix-it station, a dog spa, a “bark park,” a pool, grilling stations, a pickleball court, in-unit washers and dryers and firepits.

The developer is expecting its studio, one and two-bedroom luxury apartments to appeal to both young professionals and empty nesters.

According to Flaherty & Collins general counsel Deron Kintner, the development’s name has ties to a former Columbus native — a man who, while born in Brown County, was raised here.

“In our research, we learned that Chuck Taylor was from Columbus, which we didn’t know,” he said. “And in talking to others, a lot of people didn’t realize that. So one, we really liked the name, thought it sounded well, but also to bring attention to the fact that he was, in fact, from Columbus, we thought, was worthwhile.”

Thursday’s ceremony was attended by city and county officials, community leaders and project partners. Prior to breaking ground, representatives from both Flaherty & Collins and the city spoke about the benefits of the project and thanked each other for collaborating on the development.

“We appreciate your willingness to invest in Columbus and your confidence that we’re going to be able to deliver the economy that you need to make this thing go forward,” said Mayor Jim Lienhoop.

Likewise, David Flaherty said that it’s important to have a good ally, such as the city, when it comes to private-public partnerships.

According to recent estimates from Flaherty & Collins, the project will cost $41 million. The city has agreed to invest $11.8 million into the development under the project agreement, according to Bruce Donaldson with Barnes & Thornburg. City officials have said in the past that the development’s property tax dollars will reimburse the city for its contribution. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission also committed to selling property for the development at minimal cost to the developer.

Flaherty said that in addition to bringing approximately $500,000 a year in new property taxes, the development is also expected to generate $250,000 in new income tax from residents. The economic impact over the first five years is expected to exceed $50 million, he said. The apartments are expected to bring 300 new residents to downtown Columbus that will contribute to the local economy.

“We’re also very big on doing more developments in the same city, and we have more land, so it won’t be long until we’ll be talking to the city about trying to do a second phase or more developments,” said Flaherty.

“We’ve already started,” added Kintner.

In addition to looking at the future, speakers also reflected on the history of the project, with Lienhoop noting that the project site had previously belonged to the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation.

“The ground that you’re looking at behind me was accumulated by them over — I’m not really too sure, but I’ll say a 10- to 20-year period,” he said. “And it sat fallow for 30 years while they waited for some kind of an investment to come along. About 10 years ago, they gifted this ground to the city of Columbus. And it took us another 10 years to get here today. … They haven’t been around for a while, but they continue to make significant contributions to Columbus, even if it’s somewhat deferred in the making.”